Big Break Episode 2

Here we go again! Episode 2 of the Disney season of Big Break opens at Champions stadium, spring-training home of the Atlanta Braves. Simple concept for the first immunity challenge, home run derby. Each homer is a point, you get 2 outs. The catch is that they have to use restricted flight balls. (Obviously, even I could hit a pitching wedge out of a baseball stadium with a regular ball.) The show was stolen by Tony, one of the brothers, who got in a groove and knocked 22 out of the stadium. He could have had more, but got egged into aiming at left field instead of right, and missed one. The only person to come close was Vincent, with 19. I don't think anybody else broke 10.

Did anybody else notice the caption that said Tony's brother Gipper averaged 360 yards per drive on the Nationwide Tour last year? I realize that this guy is crazy-long, but this average is a bit misleading, as it is calculated over two rounds, and only four holes. You can see all of Gipper's stats here. But hey, I'd love to crank one 360, let alone average that. Later during the the elimination challenge Vincent comments that Gipper hit a gap wedge from 145 yards, in the rough, in the rain. Ridiculous.

The second immunity challenge was an up-and-down from from the bunker match-play event. The players got to choose their opponent for a little mind game aspect. Nothing terribly exciting resulted.

The elimination challenge didn't see too many great shots, as the goal was to hit into a 30-yard circle on the green from three different locations, but it had a ton of bad shots. Angry-guy-Blake and Susan-Lucci-is-my-mommy-Andreas battled to see who could fall apart the worst, with Andreas coming away the winner (read loser). So Andreas goes home, and we are left with the possibility of Angry-guy-Blake committing felony assault with a lob wedge.

Come on!

Last Thursday I went and dropped another $6 at the range. Good news: they had heated tee boxes. Bad news: I spent too much time on the driver and not enough time on my irons. Today I played another nine holes at North Park Golf Course. Surprisingly I hit the driver well...except for the first drive which I popped up to the right. However, I couldn't hit an iron shot to save my life. I had some good chances after good drives, but didn't manage to hit one green in regulation. ARRRGGGHHH!!! I felt like saying bad words. The worst approach was after I hit my best drive ever. 240 yards, laser-straight, dead center of the fairway. I followed that beauty up with a toed slice that almost decapitated some ladies on the next tee. I did have two approaches with a sand wedge that came up just short, and of course landed in bunkers both times.

On another note, the course was jam-packed at noon on a Wednesday. Doesn't anybody work anymore? I know, I've heard about that whole 'recession' thing going around, but really, if you're unemployed, can you afford to be golfing? I can, I have a sugar-mama, so I can spend my substitute money on golfing. What's everybody else's excuse? Go to work people!

Total spent:
Money = $94
Time = 14.5 hours
Handicap = 43

Big Break

As much as I have a distaste for reality TV, I am excited for this season of Big Break on the Golf Channel. It's about golf after all, and they're all essentially trying to do the same thing as me. They are just a smidge further along the path than I am. You have the essential cast of characters, the annoying "I love me" guy (K-Max); the angry guy (Blake); several associated-with-famous-people guys (Andrew, Andreas, Mike); the nice guy (J.R.) and a pair of brothers and an Olympic gold medalist to spice things up.

The thing that amazes me is how unimpressive the first show was. The first challenge was to pick one of three lies; fairway, rough, and bunker; and be the closest to the pin. Even from the fairway lie, nobody was closer than seven feet. The second challenge was to pick a distance between 100 and 200 yards and hit the green. That's it. And three of them missed! Come on, you have to be a scratch golfer to be on the show and you can't hit the green from the fairway at a distance that you chose? I think that's the thing about golf that is so hard to grasp. You don't have to dazzle to play good golf, you just have to be consistent. Be in the fairway, on or close to the green in regulation, and you should par most holes. It seems so easy! I guess it's the nerves.

For now I'm rooting for J.R. for no other reason than he's the nice guy. We'll see how that goes next week. I'm also looking forward to the crazy challenges that the producers concoct.

Moving along

Did you ever have one of those days where you thought that you played well, but added up the score at the end and discovered three digits? Yeah, that was me yesterday. Yesterday I had the opportunity to play the Bob O'Connor course in Schenley Park in Pittsburgh, home of the First Tee of Pittsburgh program. I wrapped the front and back nines around a doctor's appointment that I had at the VA. That's right, I'm a veteran, could I be any more well-rounded? I'm also a cancer survivor, hence the appointment. Why has nobody thrown a reality show at me yet? The course is a short, par 67 layout with most par-4 holes in the 250 yard range. This sounds easy, but the hilliness of the layout leaves many challenging uphill and downhill lies. Also, the routing crosses a road several times, which can be a bit unnerving.

For being a municipal course that costs $15 per round, the course was in remarkably good shape. Given the low rate and the time of year, I expected brown patches in the fairway and bumpy greens. Surprisingly, the fairways and rough were in great shape, and the greens were smooth and faster than average public courses. The course was gorgeous, with the autumn colors coming in and a view of the University of Pittsburgh's Cathedral of Learning in the background. This course also has a fun leftover from when it was built in 1897. There are several 'hazards' that are just ridges that cross the fairway. These are from the early days of modern golf course architecture when designers were usually just the best golfer around and just wanted to punish anybody that could not get the ball in the air. This is described in the book Golf Course Architecture: Design, Construction and Restoration by Michael Hurzdan.

I shot an unfortunate 105. However, I felt like I played better than last time. I had fewer mishits and more solid contact. My putting and chipping were also much better. I had two solid up-and-downs for par. My best contact of the day ended up hitting an overhanging branch and kicking straight left. That was a tad frustrating. This course would be a great one to bring your buddy who kills the ball with his driver, but can't hit an iron. There are only four holes over 300 yards. An accurate iron player would definitely trump a long-baller. There are two 190 yard par-3's to mix it up, on one of which I just missed the green with my four hybrid and parred.

The bad weather looks like it's starting to settle in for the winter, so the improvement will be tough. Especially since I HATE cold. Yes, HATE. Not an overstatement. I would hibernate if I could.

Stats:
Handicap: 43
Money spent: 79
Time spent: 11.5 hours

Maybe, just maybe...

I've figured it out. Friday I went to the range and hit a small bucket of balls. Made very good contact, but was hitting off a mat. Still, very encouraged compared to the last few debacles.

Stats:
Money spent: $55 + 6 = $61
Time spent: 1 hour

To GPS or not to GPS

My friend and I had a lively discussion the other day about whether GPS systems should be a part of golf. Personally, I love it when a course has carts equipped with GPS systems. It gives you so much information that you would not otherwise have.

His argument is that estimating distance is an integral part of the game. By giving specific yardages to the green or hazards from anywhere on the course, you are removing an integral aspect of the competition. While I agree with him for official competitions, such as the PGA tour, I feel that the GPS can greatly enhance the experience for the casual golfer. Even professionals on tour are given yardage books that show extremely detailed information about each hole. I know that nothing is quite as frustrating as hitting a great shot toward the green, only to discover that I over/underestimated the distance. GPS systems are especially useful at a course that you have never played before, or when there is no coding system to display the pin locations.

On the other side of the argument, golf course designers and architects spend significant amounts of effort to visually confuse golfers about the distance to the green. Having a large, open space with mountains in the background makes the hole look closer, as does a large not-quite-greenside bunker. Using GPS deemphasizes this aspect of the course design.

I don't have enough money to drop on a hand-held system, but anytime the course has the option of a cart with GPS I will always pony up the extra few dollars if necessary.

Why do I do this again?

After spending yesterday at the range trying new drills, I've come to the same conclusion that I always do. I just swing too hard. Like most other amateurs, I take beautiful, graceful practice swings, and then promptly freak out and try to annihilate the ball when it comes time to take the shot. How many of you do this? Tomorrow, I'm going back to the range and not taking anything more than a half swing. I owe it to myself and my loyal readers to get on track here, and right now my play is not acceptable.

To add insult to injury, I was at a local public course on the practice green and got to watch some teenagers from one of the local high school golf teams launch lovely, straight drives onto the fairway. That hurts.

The quest formally begins...

... on a massive low note. Sunday I skipped church to go golfing with my dad. We met at a place called Chestnut Ridge, which is between where each of us live. It's a very nice course, although a bit pricey for me. Dad usually pays. There is another course there, Tom's run, which is even more expensive, but rated slightly higher. The course is usually very well maintained, although it can be a bit soggy in places. The highlights for me are the eleventh hole, a 339-yard par 4 that begins with a severely elevated tee. It plays over a portion of lake, with additional water off the right. It's the ultimate temptation hole. Even for a decent amateur, the green is reachable with the elevation change. I hit a low draw, which barely would have gotten off the ground on a flat hole and still managed to be in the fairway at about 240 yards. However I'm sure that water has swallowed many a slice that resulted from a swing that had a little too much "Watch this!" on it. Holes 14, 15, and 16 go par5, 3, 5 and wrap around a picturesque pond with a stone wall and cattails framing it. Here the course opens up from a typical Northeast tree-lined routing to a links type of feel.

So, given that I was playing with my dad, and on one of our favorite courses, I should have had a great day right? Wrong! In trying to fix my swing, I have managed to destroy it. Even when I hit a good shot, it went wrong. Twice I underestimated my shot and launched a pristine gap wedge over the green. Add some atrocious putting and I scored a 115, one of my worst scores in a significant while. This gives me a tidy 41.0 handicap, using the Swingkeeper page at Sir Shanksalot. Sir Shanksalot is a great site, with advice, drills, a handicap/statistics page, and even a place to upload a video of your swing for review by fellow golfers. I will be using the handicap from this site until getting an official handicap. The good news is that with a 41.0 handicap, there's nowhere to go but up (or is that down?)

Stats:
Handicap = 41.0
Money spent = $55
Time spent = 6 hrs.

Whoops

Hey, remember how I said I was trying to fix that push/hook that I have? Well, the problem is that I haven't practiced my new swing enough. Pittsburgh had a nice break from the rain today, so I tried to squeeze 9 holes in between work and dinner. (Dinner is a big deal around here) Well, when I say that I tried to squeeze 9 holes in, I meant 9 good holes. What I got was about the worst I've played in a long time. So, I'm digging through all the golf tip books that I've gotten from the library. One book that I did find that I like is the Golf Digest "Breaking 100, 90, 80" book, made up of the magazine tips of the same name. It's very fun to flip through and try. Of course, a significant portion of the drills and advice they give you assume that you are the only member of a country club and can spend an hour hitting shots from different angles and lies onto the green. I think that I've reached the point of too much information and need to filter it through practice.